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Four Departments Battle Garage Fire This Morning

(PEERLESS) - Four volunteer fire departments were called to a garage fire early this morning.

When firefighters arrived at 3607 Peerless Road around 3:30 a.m. the garage was engulfed in flames. They were still on the scene as of 6am Monday morning.

Marshall, Shawswick, Oolitic and Perry and TOPES were called to the scene

"The fire was roaring out of all three doors and the roof," says Marshall VFD Chief Chad Hayes. "We went into defense mode and began containing the fire and spraying the home to prevent the fire from spreading."

The garage is owned by Bryan and Jenny Smith.

The family dog alerted the couple to the blaze.

"We were sleeping and the dog wanted out," Bryan says. "My wife went to let the dog out and heard the air compressor running and thought that was odd."

That is when Bryan went to investigate and found smoke bellowing out the back of the garage.

"By the time I had ran out to the garage, the door was blown out," he added.

Bryan is a machinist and had several pieces of equipment and hundreds of tools in the garage.

"It is my baby," Bryan says. "My hobby... I spent a lot of hours working in that garage. There is a lifetime of stuff in there."

Hayes says firefighters will be on the scene for several hours and may call in the state fire marshal to help with investigating the cause of the blaze.

"We won't know until we are able to get in there and can take a look around," Hayes says.

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